Flood moms struggle to save newborn

KOSHI DELUGE

BY THIRA L BHUSAL
INARUWA (SUNSARI), Aug 29

Incessant rain pounded the tin roof and the water dripped down. Coupled with the clamour and shout of women and children crammed inside a room that was dark in the afternoon, it was hard to make out what they were saying in their mother tongue.

Cradling an eight-day old daughter in her lap, Laludevi Sada was struggling to protect the newborn from the crowd inside the room at Bhagwati Secondary School in Inaruwa, Sunsari.
The school is being used as a camp for 1,570 displaced people who fled their villages 12 days ago to escape the Koshi flood. Among them, 781 are women and 791 children.

Laludevi was eating a meal handed out at the camp. Others could be seen struggling for the food that an elderly man was distributing inside the same room, which used to be a classroom.
A resident of Shripur-7 Kumiyai, Laludevi fled the village just hours before the Koshi washed it away completely. Four days after she left the village, she gave birth to a daughter at the district hospital near the camp.

Her husband Pritam left for Punjab in India eight months ago in search of work. He received both the good news (birth of daughter) and the bad (flooding) simultaneously. He is now on his way back home.

A soaked mat was spread on the plaster room. It was the only thing which the nursing mother could use as bedding under the dripping roof. Her diet was no different from what was distributed to the other displaced at the camp.

"We know very well that she needs special care in her condition. But, we are helpless," another women at the camp told the Post.

Rajendra Sada was holding his three-month-old son in an adjoining room. "I have been staying along this aisle because it is very difficult to protect such an infant inside this crowded room," he said. But, the baby caught a cold Thursday night due to the heavy rainfall. "I am so sad I could not even manage a thick cloth to cover him while the roof was dripping during the downpour," Rajendra said in a chocked voice.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are several other women who have given birth after fleeing their homes.

According to Inaruwa district hospital, 21 displaced women have given birth at the hospital as of Friday. Two women are still at the hospital while the rest were discharged and have returned to their camps.
"It's very hard to help them because besides their physical pain they would be in serious psychological agony," a health worker at the hospital said.

Equally serious is the condition of pregnant women at the camps.

Mother of six children, Rojitan Khatun of Kusaha-3 is nine months pregnant. Ajam Khatun, wife of Mohammad Salim Miya of Sripur-8, is eight months pregnant. There are scores of pregnant women in the camps. "Pregnant and nursing mothers are in a pathetic condition," said Harimaya Upreti, councilor from the Women's Rehabilitation Center (WOREC) Nepal.

WOREC representatives met 48 women at different camps with babies born less than 45 days ago, according to Binod Chaudhary, Program Officer of WOREC. Likewise, they consulted over 150 pregnant women in 14 camps, according to him. Chaudhary said WOREC started a center where women with babies less than 45 days old will be kept and given proper care.

"We started a center with a 20-person capacity Friday. This will be expanded," he said.